Re: elite consciousness; pyramid model

Mon, 10 Nov 1997 01:14:12 GMT
Richard K. Moore (rkmoore@iol.ie)

11/08/97, Andrew Wayne Austin wrote:
>Globalization is an objective process most of which lies external to
>consciousness. It is our task to become subjectively aware of these
>objective processes.

The question of self-awareness/consciousness of groups or classes is by no
means straightforward. Please keep mind that my posting was from the
summary of a proposed book - it describes what I intend to establish in the
book, not what I expect to be accepted as obvious. From the outline:

V. The neoliberal revolution and the globalist regime
A. The neoliberal revolution: the elite abandon the nation state
B. Who are "they"?: the reality of elite consciousness

Class (term used broadly) conciousness certainly varies widely from time to
time and circumstance to circumstance. For example, labor class
conciousness, at the current moment, would seem to be much more pronounced
in France than it is in the U.S.

I will be pointing first to the circumstantial evidence for a functional
globalist conciousness - not as proof but to establish "pattern",
"motive", and "opportunity" (to use detective parlance). This will include
the overall pattern and coherence of the globalization process, as well as
the coherence of mass media disinformation. Next I will talk about the
multi-tiered nature of the "corporate elite", and cite material indicating
the world views being promulgated to and accepted by the various tiers.

"Foreign Affairs", for example, will be useful in this regard: it
promulgates a globalist agenda, but masks it - with exposably shallow
deviousness - in terms of "U.S. strategic interests". There will certainly
be discussion of the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission,
Bilderberger Group, corporate-funded think-tanks, Milton Friedman, Samuel
P. Huntington, Rockefellers, G7, WTO, etc. In particular the direct
connection over the decades between U.S. policy decisions and CFR policy
analyses will be examined. And there will be discussion of the "revolving
door" that shuttles key techocrats to-and-fro between government, industry,
academia, and international institutions.

The investigation will endeavor to trace the tiers as close to the top as
possible, but with no expectation of finding a single identifiable
Illuminati-like clique. I expect to find a pluralistic top to the pyramid,
but one that functions with reasonable coherence and whose factions share,
to a significant degree, a common sense of identity, perception, and
purpose.

The futher down the pyramid one goes, the more one approaches an
"unconscious maintenance of the status quo", to use Gareth Barkin's phrase.
I was at a talk by (now former) Minister of Agricuture (for Ireland) Ivan
Yates where he said to a "rural development" planning group: "Big scale
farming and forestry are coming; there's no use debating it; you might as
well do your planning accordingly" (paraphrase). Mr. Yates may not be
privvy to the upper sanctums, and may not foresee what globalization will
ultimately mean for Ireland, but he's sufficiently "with the program" to
play his required role with enthusiasm as it is needed.

11/08/97, Gareth Barkin wrote:
>It seems unlikely that it would in all situations be a conscious process;
>plenty of the elite have bought their own disinformation...
> I would certainly allow for some consciousness in this 'power usurpation,'
>however, I would be quite surprised not to find some of what those
economists
>call 'path dependency' as well.

I believe this is entirely consistent with the pyramid model.

rkm